Archives for September 2003

I just watched “Luther.” There were about twenty people in the theatre, me and nineteen Lutherans. I really enjoyed it. I’m not a huge church history buff, but I’ve had a class or two. The movie seemed to hit all the highlights, except Luther’s love of beer. I’m not sure why they didn’t emphasize this […]

In my class on the Kingdom of God we’re grappling with these six questions: 1. Is the Kingdom of God already present or has it not yet arrived?2. Is the Kingdom of God an individual or social/communal enterprise?3. Is the Kingdom of God spiritual or material? Is it concerned more with religion or politics?4. Does […]

We went out to lunch yesterday with some friends. Elijah screamed almost the whole time. Caleb, who is being potty trained, felt the urge to go just as the food arrived. Heather had already taken him once before. When I tried to take him into the men’s room he balked because earlier his mom had […]

If you’re interested in a communal approach to evangelism, check out The Celtic Way of Evangelism by George Hunter. I have used it in several classes and keep coming back to it time and time again.

Yesterday I preached on the story of the Shrewd Steward in Luke 16:1-8. Afterwards I heard these two comments from long-time church members: “In my fifty years of listening to sermons I’ve never heard one on that text.” “I didn’t even know that parable was in the Bible!” Amazing. One cool thing about preaching on […]

It would be overly simplistic to say that the tragedy of September 11th was the sole reason I never made good on my resignation, but it did play a major role. Just as it was for many around me, Sept. 11th was a clarifying moment in my life. Instead of fanning the flames of patriotism […]

I took Heather and the boys to lunch today at Chick-fil-A. They have a great indoor playground which Caleb loves. While we were eating, a nice lady came by and gave both of the boys a balloon. Later she came by with a small cup of ice cream for Elijah who is not yet old […]

Last night I started teaching a class I’m calling, “Jesus and the Kingdom of God.” It’s grown out of the Bible study I’ve been doing with our leadership team on the same subject. As a way of introducing the series I asked everyone to define in one sentence what they believed Jesus meant by the […]